Bachmann no stranger to pharma donations

Rep. Michele Bachmann went after Rick Perry on Monday night for the Texas governor’s ties to pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. Inc. But Bachmann herself is no stranger to contributions from the pharmaceutical industry, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

None of the roughly $146,400 the Minnesota lawmaker received from the pharmaceutical industry over the course of her career came from Merck, the nonpartisan research group said. Still, that sum ranks the pharmaceutical and health-products industry as her No. 15 career campaign contributor.

Bachmann suggested that Perry tried to mandate the inoculation of girls in Texas against the virus that causes cervical cancer partly because Merck — which made the vaccine — contributed to his campaign. Perry acknowledged receiving $5,000 from Merck.

The outspoken Texas governor said he’s “offended” by the suggestion he could be bought for $5,000. He issued the executive order mandating the vaccine in 2007. Perry says he regrets the order, which was later repealed by the Texas legislature.

A report on Tuesday said that Perry actually low-balled his contributions from Merck. Citing records from the Texas Ethics Commission compiled by the National Institute on Money in State Politics, National Journal reported that Perry got a total of $28,500 in contributions from the company’s political action committee from 2002 to 2010.

Perry and Bachmann will soon have another opportunity to go head to head over contributions. Those two and other GOP presidential hopefuls will debate next on Sept. 22. In the meantime, Bachmann is keeping up her line of attack.

“I think it’s important to point out that this donor, like so many other of the governor’s donors, received appointments, received political favors,” she told Fox News after the debate on Monday night. I think that we’re going to hear a lot more about that in the course of the campaign because this is what the American people don’t want. They don’t want crony capitalism.”